WAR AMPUTEE IS HELPING OTHERS

Veteran relishes role overseeing VA hospital’s prosthetics ward

When Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with missing limbs come to the San Diego VA hospital in La Jolla, one of their own is sitting behind the desk.

And when he walks the halls, his step has a similar broken cadence.

Tristan Wyatt, 31, lost most of his right leg in August 2003 when an enemy anti-tank rocket pierced his armored personnel carrier in Iraq.

Back at Walter Reed Medical Center, the young soldier’s first prosthetic was like an early iPhone — good, but rudimentary. And he dreaded entering the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical system, where he imagined he’d get the equivalent of a peg leg.

When he took his first steps as a civilian again, “That was the most lost I’ve ever been.”

Today, Wyatt has found his place. He is chief of the La Jolla VA’s prosthetics and sensory aids department, where he gets to interact with some of the hospital’s more than 70 young amputee patients a year.

While it’s not exactly his dream role — he’d like to still be in uniform — it is far more rewarding than most desk jobs.

“It is incredibly fulfilling to be able to help out with this demographic. The personal connection that I have to this demographic, it doesn’t feel like a job. I feel like I honestly am helping people.”

Nationally, the VA cares for 12,000 veterans with service-connected amputations.

In San Diego, the largest group of amputees is Vietnam veterans, though more young faces are appearing in the prosthetics lab as they transition over from the Navy hospital in Balboa Park.

In his four years at the San Diego VA, Wyatt has seen the growth. It used to be just a handful of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Now he sees them at least once a week.

His advice to younger amputees — simple, but what got him through the past decade: Stick in there. It’s going to be rocky.

“Just being able to be there for that transition, it’s overwhelming,” the former Army combat engineer said. “It’s nice to have a battle buddy who has been down that road.”

In Wyatt’s case, it was him and two guys from his 3rd Armored Cavalry squad.

The rocket that hit Wyatt continued on to pierce another soldier’s hip before finally striking another guy. Of the six men in the Army personnel carrier, three lost legs that day outside Fallujah.

In 2003, they were some of the first modern battlefield amputees.

“We kind of stumbled through it together,” said Wyatt, who keeps in touch with his old squad. They had a reunion this summer in San Diego.

Of the six, two others also have gone into the prosthetics field. One is a VA employee in Amarillo, Texas, and the other — who didn’t lose his leg but helped his buddies tie lifesaving tourniquets that day — works in the private sector in Santa Ana.

“It was difficult. It was messy,” Wyatt said of his initial months back. “And that was part of the motivation to be here right now.”